Manga / The Summer You Were There

"That was it. How our first and last summer, spent together, began."

—Shizuku Hoshikawa, narration at the end of Chapter 1

The Summer You Were There is a Yuri Genre manga by Yuama.

Shizuku Hoshikawa is a first-year in high school who is withdrawn from others and suffers from severe self-loathing. When she goes to throw out a novel manuscript, her classmate Kaori Asaka picks it up and happens to like it. Upon hearing that Shizuku doesn't plan on writing any more, she suggests that Shizuku write a love story about the two of them, with them playing at being a relationship for the duration of the summer. Shizuku hesitantly accepts, not knowing that both she and Kaori will have to confront each other's darkest secrets.

The story is complete after 32 chapters.

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Tropes:

• Adults Are Useless: Not a single adult was shown intervening when Shizuku bullied Ruri (although one child is heard calling for a teacher, it is not shown whether the teacher did anything), and the bullying only stopped when, after Shizuku caused Ruri to fall in front of others, Seri slapped Shizuku and called her out on her actions. The only adult involvement happened when Shizuku's mother took her to the Ichinose residence and Shizuku apologized to Ruri's mother.
• Affectionate Nickname:
  • Kaori's friends Ruri and Seri call her "Kao-chan," and her mother also used to call her "Kao."
  • Kaori calls her younger sister Shiori "Shio," based on her own nickname.
• Apologizes a Lot:
  • Ruri tends to respond to any criticism or insults by apologizing.
  • Ironically, Shizuku falls into this behavior when Seri or Ruri discuss her bullying, reflexively apologizing when the latter two discuss the fallout of her misdeeds.
• Armor-Piercing Question:
  • After Shizuku tells Kaori that she's afraid she'll end up unwittingly hurting her the same way she hurt Ruri, Kaori asks the following question, which forces her to acknowledge that she does enjoy being around Kaori.
    Kaori: What about you? How do you feel? Do you hate being with me?
  • After Shizuku tries to apologize to Ruri, Ruri asks her, "What do you want from me?" Shizuku inwardly admits that while she was prepared for the possibility that Ruri would never forgive her, a part of her hoped that Ruri would, but she replies that she merely wanted to convey her feelings.
• Armor-Piercing Response:
  • After Shizuku justifies her mistreatment of Ruri, Seri gives a response that triggers Shizuku's Heel Realization.
    Seri: Oh yeah...? So that's how you're bullying Ruri.
  • Kaori gives a series of these after telling Shizuku about her terminal illnesses, refuting all of Shizuku's attempts to find some hope. While Shizuku's voice is quaking, Kaori's is grimly resolute.
    Shizuku: There are other hospitals you could try....
    Kaori: I've been to a lot of places. It's all the same.
    Shizuku: Maybe they've got the wrong diagnosis...
    Kaori: I don't think so, not this time around. They're the leading doctors on it. Famous even.
    Shizuku: F-Famous? But, that's great! Maybe you have to stay a bit and somehow...
    Kaori: Somehow, I made it up until now. It's a miracle I survived to high school.
    Shizuku: Gh... But...
    Kaori: Shizuku. There are no miracles left for me. This is it for me.
• Bait-and-Switch Comment:
  • A comedic example happens in Chapter 19. Kaori, reading Shizuku's novel, blurts out "Oh, I'm so in love!", startling Shizuku, before adding "With your novel!" Since Shizuku had just heard Kaori's friend Seri remark that Shizuku and Kaori looked like a couple to Seri, she's seemingly both relieved and disappointed that Kaori was talking about the novel.
  • A serious example happens in Chapter 27, when Seri takes the opportunity to speak with Shizuku despite the awkward tension between them. She says that she's always been scared of Shizuku, who bullied her in elementary school, and as much as she wants to forget it all, she can't. It seems as though nothing has changed since she rejected Shizuku's apology in Chapter 14... but then Ruri says that she wants to get to know Shizuku, since Shizuku has changed and getting to know the new her might help Ruri overcome her trauma.
• Bittersweet Ending: Kaori passes away from her illness, but she leaves behind a letter and her diary for Shizuku, who was left too depressed to even attend her funeral. After reading about Kaori’s thoughts about her as well as their Forgotten First Meeting, Shizuku begins attending class again, and she’s ready to move on with her life.
• Bland-Name Product: Shizuku and Kaori chat on a LIME app on SOMY cell phones.
• Blatant Lies:
  • After Shizuku gets home from the aquarium date with Kaori soaking wet and clearly upset, her older sister Shizuka asks if something happened. Shizuku says "It's nothing," and Shizuka replies, "Like hell it is!"
  • In Chapter 11, Kaori notices that Shizuku appears to be pouting, apparently unhappy that she and Kaori are on a Last-Name Basis while Kaori is on a First-Name Basis with the other members of the family, prompting Shizuku, embarrassed, to deny that she is.
  • Shortly before the outing late in August, Kaori claims that her doctors think that her getting some fresh air will be good for her. Shizuku realizes that Kaori's condition has not improved in the slightest, but doesn't know what she can do other than pretend not to notice.
  • During the group outing to Enoshima, Kaori asks Shizuku and Ruri to get her a drink, resulting in the two having a heart-to-heart talk. After getting back, Shizuku thanks Kaori, who, in a bit of customary self-deprecation, claims she didn't do anything. Shizuku smiles and thinks, "Liar."
• Blunt "Yes":
  • In Chapter 2, after Kaori proposes pretending to go out so Shizuku can write a romance story about them.
    Kaori: Not interested?
    Shizuku: No, I'm not.
    Kaori: Wow, blunt much?
  • At the start of Chapter 3, after Kaori and Shizuku enter a temporary fake relationship, Kaori comes over to Shizuku's house uninvited after calling her the first thing in the morning.
    Shizuku: Are you planning on coming over? Every? Single? Day?
    Kaori: Hm? Yep! I mean, that's what couples do, right?
  • After Shizuku encounters Seri and Ruri in the hospital, the former pulls her aside to talk with her. Shizuku is confused as to why Seri would take the time to tell her about Kaori's condition.
    Shizuku: I thought you hated me, Ichihara-san.
    Seri: I do.
• Both Sides Have a Point: In the conflict between Shizuku and her former friend/bullying victim Ruri, both sides' perspectives are presented as valid. Shizuku feels terrible about bullying Ruri, to the point of being suicidally depressed, and even Ruri has to acknowledge Shizuku has changed for the better. On the other hand, Ruri was traumatized by Shizuku's bullying, Shizuku's apology reopens old wounds and Shizuku realizes that no matter how sorry she feels for herself, she hurt Ruri. Shizuku and Ruri's mutual friend Kaori sympathizes with Shizuku enough to convince her to apologize, but while she hopes Ruri can get over her trauma, she tells Ruri that she is under no obligation to forgive Shizuku.
• Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick: The penultimate chapter ends with Shizuku narrating that she woke up to the sound of her alarm clock and news of Kaori's death.
• Breather Episode: After Chapters 6-9 go into Shizuku's backstory and guilt over bullying Ruri, and Chapter 10 gives the first indication that Kaori is not well, Chapters 11-12 have what the author describes as "lovey-dovey" scenes between Kaori and Shizuku as Shizuku works on the apology letter. Chapters 13-14 then involve Shizuku trying to apologize to Ruri, followed by Kaori's collapse and hospitalization.
• The Bully: The reason Shizuku hates herself so much is because she bullied Ruri in elementary school. At first, it started out as bluntly insensitive remarks about Ruri falling behind in school, but then escalated to blaming Ruri for holding the class back and culminated in Shizuku pushing Ruri over while she was carrying a large pot of curry, an incident that much of the school witnessed.
• Bullying the Disabled: It turns out that Ruri's constant absences from school, and her resulting difficulties with academics and athletics, which led to Shizuku bullying her, were due to a medical condition that she got under control by the time she reached adolescence. Shizuku feels even worse about her behavior after learning this.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Seri is introduced in the flashback of Shizuku bullying Ruri, and slaps Shizuku. She properly debuts in an extra chapter in Volume 2, and makes her first appearance in the main story at the end of Chapter 13.
• Cliffhanger:
  • Chapter 5, the end of the first manga volume, ends with Kaori telling Shizuku that she always knew about Shiuku being a bully in elementary school.
  • In Chapter 14, after Ruri and Seri leave following Shizuku's attempted apology to Ruri, Kaori collapses.
  • In Chapter 15, when Shizuku is visiting Kaori in the hospital, the latter suddenly decides to break up long before the agreed-upon end to their relationship at the end of the summer. The third volume ends here.
  • In Chapter 30, Shizuku gets a call from Seri informing her that Kaori's condition took a turn for the worse and she is now on the operating table.
• Cool Big Sis:
  • Shizuku's older sister Shizuka is rather kind and supportive of her.
  • Kaori is also quite close with Shiori, to the point that Shiori feels threatened by Shizuku's closeness with Kaori. Shizuku notices that Kaori's profile picture is one of herself and her sister, and she didn't even change it after starting her "relationship" with Shizuka.
• Darker and Edgier: Compared to the author's previous work, The Girl I Want is So Handsome!. The latter begins with the comedic Crash-Into Hello between the protagonist and her crush, while this series begins with a the protagonist preparing to kill herself. While The Girl I Want Is So Handsome has an unambiguously happy ending, The Summer You Were There has a Bittersweet Ending, in which Kaori dies of her illness.
• A Day in the Limelight: While Shizuku is the primary POV character, and the only one whose thoughts are shown, Chapter 24 mainly focuses on Ruri's point of view, as do the bonus chapters 9.5 and 20.5
• Deadly Euphemism: When talking about her plan to commit suicide after disposing of her novel, Shizuku sometimes refers to the act as the decision to erase herself.
• Dead Man Writing: In the final chapter, Shizuku reads the final letter Kaori wrote for her before dying, with Kaori's sister Shiori mentioning that Kaori also wrote to the others close to her. In it, Kaori confesses she was in love with Shizuku and asks her to live on to her fullest on her behalf.
• Description Cut: At the end of Chapter 10, Shizuku wonders if Kaori also had a good time at the festival. It cuts to Kaori gasping for breath and having a coughing fit.
• Downer Beginning: The initial scenes establish that Shizuku is suicidal and would have killed herself if not for Kaori's intervention.
• Driven to Suicide: Shizuku was planning on killing herself once she was finished with her story.
• Everyone Can See It: Quite a few secondary characters make note of how close Kaori and Shizuku are. Seri casually remarks that Shizuku, as Kaori's "girlfriend," should know about her condition, having immediately assumed that Shizuku and Kaori were a couple. Ruri notices that Kaori is happiest when talking about Shizuku. Shiori feels rather threatened by her sister's closeness with Shizuku.
• Establishing Character Moment:
  • Seri is first introduced in a flashback, slapping Shizuku for bullying Ruri. This shows how protective she is of Ruri and her hatred for Shizuku.
  • In Chapter 4.5, Shiori expresses worry about whether Kaori is overexerting herself, then insists that Kaori spend time with her, too, showing that she cares a great deal for her sister, and can be a bit clingy, too.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: Shizuku grew out her bangs after her bullying Ruri caused her to become ostracized, since she willingly isolated herself from others. She cuts her bangs short in the final scene, now that she is willing to reach out to others again.
• Extreme Doormat: Ruri has trouble standing up for herself, hence why she didn't utter a word of protest against Shizuku's bullying and agreed to Kaori's request to meet with Shizuku and hear Shizuku's apology.
• Family Theme Naming: All of the named members of the Hoshikawa family- sisters Shizuka and Shizuka, as well as their dog Shion- have names beginning with "Shi."
• Festival Episode: In Chapter 10, Shizuku and Kaori put on yukatas and go to a festival with fireworks.
• Fireworks of Love: Shizuku and Kaori hold hands as they watch works together at the festival in Chapter 10.
• First-Episode Twist: Shizuku harbors a deep secret that causes her to hate herself, and the end of the first volume has her confess to being a former bully.
• Foregone Conclusion: The first pages reveal that Shizuku's relationship with Kaori only lasts for the summer. Kaori dies of her illness in the penultimate chapter.
• Forgotten First Meeting: It is shown in the last chapter that Shizuku helped Kaori get a library book when they were children which was one of the reasons she admired her so much.
• Four Is Death: Kaori's collapse and the resulting Internal Reveal of her terminal illness to Shizuku happens just after meeting of herself, Shizuku, Ruri and Seri, in which Shizuku hoped to apologize to Ruri for bullying her in the past. The meeting date was arranged four days in advance. Chapter 16 (4 x 4) is when Shizuku learns the truth that Kaori is going to die in the near future.
• Full-Name Basis: Shiori calls Shizuku by her full name while raging at her when Shizuku comes to visit.
• Hiding Behind Your Bangs: Shizuku has long bangs, indicative of her withdrawn nature. They weren't as long in the flashbacks to elementary school, when she was outgoing and confident to the point of arrogance, and are cut short once again in the final scene, when she decides to stop isolating herself.
• Holding Hands:
  • Shizuku and Kaori do this in Chapter 13, on the way to meeting Ruri and Seri.
  • In the final chapter, Shizuku and Kaori are shown this way in the panel in which Kaori, in her posthumous letter, expresses her wish that they could have been an actual couple, with the holding hands part being shorthand for being a couple.
• Hope Spot:
  • In Chapter 15, when Shizuku visits Kaori in the hospital, Kaori initially downplays the severity of her condition, and Shizuku wonders if Seri was lying about Kaori's disease. Kaori then confirms that Seri was telling the truth and refutes each of the optimistic possibilities Shizuku raises.
  • In Chapter 31, Kaori manages to survive long enough to regain consciousness and hear Shizuku's Love Confession. Shizuku hopes to see her again... but then Kaori passes away that night.
• Improperly Paranoid: Because of her deep-seated guilt, Shizuku comes to some unreasonable conclusions about people, although she rarely acts on them. For example, she thinks that Kaori is conspiring with Ruri to get revenge on her for her bullying, or that Seri was maliciously lying when she told Shizuku about Kaori's respiratory disease.
• Inconsistent Dub: In the first volume of the localization, Shiori calls her older sister Kaori "Onee-chan." In later volumes, she and Shizuku call their respective older sisters "Sis."
• Inconsistent Spelling: In the first volume of the localization, Shizuku's surname is "Hoshigawa," but it switches to "Hoshikawa" in subsequent volumes.
• Innocently Insensitive:
  • At the fireworks festival, Shizuku proposes coming again with Kaori the next year, unaware that Kaori doesn't expect to live that long. She makes the same mistake during the second visit to the aquarium, proposing that they come back when Kaori's favorite author releases a new book, and immediately regrets her choice of words.
  • Kaori proposes that Shizuku upload her novel to a web novel site, unaware that when she did so, she ended up getting a rather extreme backlash due to inadvertently making her novel resemble a real incident.
• Internal Reveal: While the reader learns that Kaori is not well in Chapter 10, Shizuku only discovers this in Chapter 14, when Kaori collapses.
• Internet Jerk: When Shizuku uploaded her novel online, many of the comments were extremely negative, with some demanding that she quit writing or even kill herself.
• Invisible Parents: Shizuku and Shizuka's father is apparently still alive and in his daughters' lives, but while their mother shows up sometimes, he does not. He's only seen in one panel in which Shizuku thinks about her family, partly hidden behind Shizuka.
• I Should Write a Book About This: Invoked. At the start of the series, Kaori suggests Shizuku they should pretend to be a couple to give Shizuku inspiration to write their love story. In the final chapter, Shizuku manages to finish her novel when Kaori is in critical condition and through it, she confesses her love to her right before Kaori dies. The final panel of the manga shows Shizuku's novel is titled "The Summer You Were There".
• Jerkass to One: Seri is noticeably harsher with Shizuku than she is with other people, due to hating her for bullying Ruri.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
  • Seri can be rather sharp-tongued, especially to Shizuku, but she's a loyal friend to Ruri and can be surprisingly kind to Shizuku at times.
  • When Shizuku was younger, she was rather sharp-tongued and abrasive, but went out of her way to help others. Unfortunately, her good intentions ended up being negated by her harsh way of helping others.
• Last Kiss: When Kaori is in critical condition at the hospital, Shizuku kisses her hand(due to Kaori having an oxygen mask over her nose and mouth) before she goes back home to finish her novel and send it to Kaori. This is the last time they're together with Kaori alive.
• Love Epiphany: In Chapter 21, when Shizuku is talking with Shiori about how important Kaori is to her and how much she doesn't want to lose her, she realizes that she loves Kaori.
• Love Hurts: Shizuku realizes how important Kaori is around the same time she realizes that Kaori is dying. She lampshades it when she recalls how she thought being in love was a more cheerful thing.
  Shizuku: If you become any more important to me, it'll only hurt more when it comes time to say goodbye. I know that. But it's too late. You had already become someone I can't let go of long ago.
• Meaningful Echo:
  • Shizuku and Kaori go to a library early on in the series, while pretending to go out with each other. When Kaori gets excited, Shizuku, who's less enthusiastic, says, "We're in a library! Shhh!" Shortly thereafter, Shizuku is so surprised that Kaori likes the same author she does that she raises her voice, whereupon Kaori giggles and says, "Shhh! We're in a library! Right?" with a smile.
  • After Shizuku runs away from the aquarium date with Kaori, she gets a letter from Kaori, but is afraid of what it might say, thinking, "Knowing is just as scary as not knowing." She then repeats this phrase to herself after making up her mind to read Kaori's letter.
• Missing Mom: It is strongly implied that Kaori and Shiori's mother is dead. Their father is the only parent seen, the two mention him alone when talking about their family, and in Chapter 16, Kaori says she knows what it is like to have to bear the pain of losing someone. Kaori's father and sister are also the only ones who visit her in the hospital.
• Mood Whiplash:
  • In Chapter 14, Shizuku's attempted apology to Ruri ends on a bittersweet note, as Shizuku is disappointed that Ruri didn't accept it but was glad that she could make the step. As Ruri and Seri walk off and Shizuku starts to thank Kaori, Kaori collapses.
  • In Chapter 18, Seri, despite still hating Shizuku for bullying Ruri, tells Shizuku about Ruri's medical condition and explains that she told Shizuku about Kaori's illness out of pity for Shizuku and Kaori being in a similar situation as Seri and Ruri. She then adds that it's important for Shizuku to know about this if she's going out with Kaori, resulting in Shizuku being comically embarrassed.
  • In Chapter 19, Shizuku, while mountain climbing with her older sister Shizuka, thinks about how Shizuka doesn't know how bad Kaori's condition is, but hopes that Kaori can recover so they can climb the seemingly leisurely mountain together. Not long afterward, Shizuku is shown comically exhausted, due to being out of shape compared to her athletic sister.
• Nice Girl:
  • Kaori's positivity may be an act, but she's a selfless girl who puts others before herself.
  • Shizuku gradually develops into one as she cares for Kaori, reaches out to others and tries to make amends with Ruri. Kaori says that Shizuku has always been nice, even if she doesn't realize it.
  • While Ruri understandably is initially unable to forgive Shizuku, she's able to keep things civil with her former bully and even offers to get to know the person she's become.
• One Head Taller: Shizuku is one of the tallest high schoolers, with her standing a full head taller than Kaori and Ruri. In the latter case, she's still slightly taller than Ruri when bowing to apologize.
• Poor Communication Kills:
  • Shizuku might not have been so harsh with Ruri if she'd known that Ruri had a medical condition that often required her to be hospitalized. Ruri once tried to say she was at the hospital during her most recent absence, but didn't mention having a condition, and Shizuku cut her off.
  • Shizuku's parents and sister were worried about her, but didn't tell her about that, while Shizuku also never told them the severity of her depression.
  • Because Kaori has a habit of downplaying how much she is suffering and Shizuku has a tendency to assume the worst, Shizuku comes to the conclusion that Kaori doesn't want her to come visit her every day, since Kaori might find it exhausting but be unwilling to admit it. After Shizuku doesn't come visit for a few days (initially because she wasn't allowed to, but later because she didn't have anything to show Kaori), it takes Kaori begging Shizuku to come see her for her to realize the error of her ways.
• Rejected Apology: In Chapter 14, Shizuku goes to apologize to Ruri. Seri is hostile to Shizuku from the very start and refuses to accept the apology. While Ruri is more polite about it, she tells Shizuku that seeing her is reopening her old wounds, and she wants nothing more to do with her.
• Romantic Fake–Real Turn: Kaori proposes a fake relationship so that Shizuku has material to write a novel, with her goal being to ensure that Shizuku does not commit suicide, although Kaori seems to have had feelings for Shizuku all along. Shizuku goes along with the fake relationship reluctantly at first, but gradually becomes more invested in it, and realizes she has genuine romantic feelings for Kaori. The ending reveals that Kaori has always admired Shizuku and perhaps been in love with her all along, but chose to keep the relationship fake so that Shizuku would not be too devastated by her inevitable death.
• School Uniforms are the New Black: While most of the series takes place during summer vacation, Seri and Ruri are often shown wearing their uniforms, due to having club activities over the break.
• Scully Box: invoked In one bonus illustration showing Kaori and Shizuku as butlers, it is mentioned that Kaori is standing on a footstool to be level with Shizuku's head.
• Shoo Out the Clowns: Shizuku's older sister Shizuka appears significantly less often after Kaori is hospitalized and the series gets darker, only appearing in Chapter 19, which focuses on Shizuku's relationship with her family, and the immediate aftermath at the start of Chapter 20.
• Short-Distance Phone Call: In Chapter 31, Shizuku and Kaori text each other in the same room, because Kaori's condition has worsened to the point at which speaking causes her to break down in a coughing fit.
• Show, Don't Tell: Chapter 9.5 shows that Ruri is still traumatized by Shizuku's bullying by having her flinch upon seeing a restaurant selling curry, and Seri apologizing for forgetting about it.
• Significant Name Shift: Shizuku called Ruri "Ruri-chan" back in elementary school, but switches to the more formal "Ichinose-san" when they meet again in the present day out of politeness and the acknowledgment that they're no longer friends. However, she does refer to her as "Ruri-chan" in her thoughts and when talking with Kaori, and switches back after Ruri expresses a desire to get to know her.
• Stepford Smiler: Kaori seems cheerful at first glance, but while she is genuinely good-natured, she hides her vulnerability from others.
• Summer Romance: As the title indicates, the plot is about the romance that bloomed between Shizuku and Kaori over the course of the first and only summer they spent together before Kaori's death at the end of the season.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: While Shizuku visits Kaori in the hospital almost every day when that is able, she's not Kaori's family and doesn't have visitation rights. This, combined with Kaori passing away in the early morning, means that Shizuku can't be present for Kaori's final moments.
• There Are No Therapists:
  • Shizuku's family notices that she's becoming increasingly withdrawn, but rather than seek professional help for their daughter, they get her a dog.
  • Likewise, even though Ruri is traumatized by bullying to the point at which curry is a Trauma Button, she doesn't get any professional help, either.
• Title Drop:
  • The title of Chapter 15 is dropped late in the chapter, when, after learning about Kaori's illness, Shizuku thinks, "You'll be fine, right?"
  • The title of the manga is dropped on the last page of Chapter 32.
    Shizuku narrating: Because I want to believe that, in the end, the summer you were there was a happy story. (final panel shows the manuscript titled "The Summer You Were There."
• Trailers Always Spoil: The summary of the localization of Volume 3 all but outright says that Ruri rejects Shizuku's apology, then mentions that Kaori faints afterward. Since it happens in the volume's penultimate chapter, that spoils 80% of the volume.
• Tsundere:
  • Kaori's sister Shiori is this toward Shizuku, according to Kaori. While she had spent much of Shizuku's visit angrily ranting at her, she privately told Kaori that Shizuku was a nice person.
  • Seri hates Shizuku for bullying Ruri, but can show a softer side on occasion. She takes pity on Shizuku and tells her about Kaori's condition, puts in a good word for Shizuku to Seri and allows Shizuku to push Kaori's wheelchair during the second aquarium date despite having refused to do so during the trip to Enoshima.
• Two-Act Structure: The first act, in which Kaori is free to visit Shizuku is relatively lighthearted, although it involves Shizuku's suicidal depression and guilt over bullying Ruri. The second half, in which Kaori is hospitalized, is noticeably darker, and involves Shizuku and other characters coming to terms with Kaori not having long to live.
• Unmoving Plaid: Kaori's hospital clothes in Chapter 15 have a consistent diagonal plaid pattern.
• Webcomic Time: The series is a monthly manga published over the course of multiple years, but takes place over the course of a single summer vacation- July 16 to September 5, or about a month and a half.
• Wham Episode:
  • Chapter 5. Shizuku reaches her breaking point and confesses to having been a bully in elementary school, only for Kaori to reveal that she already knew it. After the fallout of these admissions, Shizuku actually starts trusting Kaori more, and getting her help in apologizing to Ruri.
  • Chapter 14-15. Not only does Ruri reject Shizuku's apology, but Kaori collapses, resulting in Shizuku learning of her condition.
  • Chapter 25. Kaori slips into unconsciousness, and it becomes apparent to everyone close to her that she doesn't have much time left.
  • At the end of Chapter 30, Kaori goes into critical condition, forcing Shizuku to race to fulfill all her promises to Kaori and setting the stage for Kaori's death one chapter later.
• Wham Line:
  • Shizuku is shocked when Kaori takes Shizuku's confession to being a bully in elementary school surprisingly well, but then Kaori explains why.
    Kaori: I already knew everything.
  • Early on in Chapter 15, as Ruri calls an ambulance for Kaori, she makes the following revelation about Kaori's condition.
    Ruri: She has a chronic respiratory disease.
  • At the end of Chapter 15, after Kaori is hospitalized, she makes a shocking proposal to Shizuku.
    Kaori: Hey... Hoshikawa-san. We should break up. Let's put an end... to this pretend romance.
  • In Chapter 25, Shiori gives Shizuka some disturbing news about Kaori.
    Shiori: She slipped unconscious yesterday and hasn't come back yet.
  • In Chapter 30, Shizuka is looking forward to seeing Kaori tomorrow, but then she gets a call from Seri.
    Seri: Just stay calm and listen, okay? It's Kao-chan, she...
  • Chapter 31, the penultimate chapter, ends with the following.
    Shizuku narrating: The next morning, I woke up to the sound of my alarm clock, and the news of Kaori's passing.
• Wham Shot:
  • In Chapter 10, as Shizuku wonders if Kaori had fun at the festival, Kaori is shown in her room, gasping for breath and coughing, with medications on her bed.
  • In Chapter 14, Shizuku thanks Kaori for accompanying her to the meeting with Ruri and Seri, only to turn and see Kaori collapse.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: At the start of the series, Kaori takes the manuscript Shizuku was planning on throwing away, reads it and hangs on to it. When Kaori tries to break up with Shizuku in Chapter 16, she tries to return it, but Shizuku refuses, and the manuscript is last seen laying on Kaori's bed in the hospital. While the story that Shizuku wrote comes up later, the manuscript is never seen again, not even after Kaori dies.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Kaori tells Shizuku that while she might have been a bully in the past, the fact that she regrets it and is punishing herself shows that she's not as despicable as she thinks she is.
• Yuri Genre: While Shizuku and Kaori's relationship is initially fake, it turns out that Shizuka has fallen in love with Kaori, and Kaori holds Shizuka in similarly high esteem.